Margate Considers Rise In Garbage Fee

November 6, 1985|By Brian Kaufman, Staff Writer

MARGATE — Call it an 18-cent dispute.

City commissioners tonight will vote for the first time on an ordinance that would raise by 18 cents per month the fee Waste Management Inc. charges to pick up a homeowner`s garbage. The ordinance must pass twice before it is adopted.

Causing the fuss are two stipulations in the city`s five-year contract with Waste Management. One allows Waste Management to ask the city once each year for a rate increase. The other allows the commission to reject the request outright.

``Why the dickens give it to them if you don`t really have to give it to them?`` Mayor Ben Goldner said Tuesday. ``It`s such a small amount, why not let them absorb it?``

The company now charges Margate single-family homeowners $6.41 per month.

Emerson Allsworth, who represented Waste Management at a commission meeting Oct. 24, said the rising cost of labor and trucks made it necessary for the company to ask for more money. Waste Management asked for a 3.4 percent increase per month from Margate`s single-family homeowners, a figure derived from the Consumer Price Index, he said.

Commissioner Leonard Weisinger proposed a 3 percent increase.

Weisinger said Tuesday he offered the compromise because the firm, though charging Margate the lowest price of any city in Broward County, does a good job.

Commissioner Mitch Anton, a vocal proponent of the ordinance, said it`s only fair that a firm that does as good a job as Waste Management receive a rate increase. He said two other firms -- a lawn service and a janitorial service -- have been given 5 percent increases from the commission, no questions asked.

Commissioner Joseph Varsallone, the most outspoken opponent of the increase, could not be contacted for comment Tuesday. But during last month`s meeting, he made his intentions clear.

``I`ll be damned if I`m going to vote an increase if we have sole discretion to approve it.``